Tech Industry: Vizio Tablet

Tech Industry: Vizio Tablet

1:37 /
January 7, 2011

At CES 2011, flat-screen TV maker Vizio is making the jump into the smartphone and tablet computer markets, and introduces the Vizio tablet.

Hi, I'm Natalie Morris for CNET and you're watching CES 2011.
I have with me here the Vizio VIA Tablet.
This is the first entrant into the tablet market by Vizio which is the company you normally think of for TVs.
The reason they're getting into this mobile space is because they're trying to merge the TV with the tablet with the phone and make it all one seamless experience.
So, the same software that will run on the Vizio VIA Phone will also run on this tablet
which will work with Google TV.
Now, this is running a version of Google's Android operating system and we're not exactly sure which one yet.
This is a prototype device.
It doesn't come out 'til the summer but a couple things we know about it are pretty impressive.
First of all, it has three different speakers, two along the top and one along the side here so that when you use it in landscape or portrait mode, you always have surround sound with two speakers at a time.
It also has this IR blaster in the front meaning that you can use this as a universal remote
so when you walk into your house, you can control the electronics in your home entertainment system with the Vizio app and this is running a Vizio skin of Android.
Now, this is a Wi-Fi-only version of this tablet.
We don't know when they'll come out with a mobile version like 3G or 4G but we think that is in the works.
We also don't have price or release date for this yet.
We just know that we'll see it some time in the summer of 2011.
Again, this is the Vizio VIA Tablet.
I'm Natalie Morris for CNET and you're watching our coverage of CES 2011.